Living on the Limits in L.A.

September 23, 2009; by Heidi Isaza, Assignment Editor

Ashley, 14, gets up at 7 a.m. every day. She has to get ready and be out the door by 7:30 to start her 45 minute walk to school. There are public buses that could make Ashley’s commute to school shorter and safer. But, riding the bus costs money—something Ashley’s family doesn’t have a lot of right now.

 Ashley lives with her mother, Graciela*, and her brother Jason, 13. The three of them live in government housing and survive on just $150 per week—what Ashley’s mom can make taking care of a neighbor’s child 24 hours a day, five days a week.  Childcare is the only income Graciela has been able to find since she lost her job two years ago. “For me, it’s very, very hard,” she says. “I have two kids and I don’t have a job. I only take care of the baby. The money I am able to earn does not cover my bills,” she says.

The $600 a month does not even cover the basic necessities of shelter and utilities—let alone food for her active and growing children. By the time she pays her rent and her utilities bills, Graciela is already $100 behind each month. And, the family still has to eat.

  Donate to help children and families overcome by situational poverty.

Graciela and her children are frequent recipients of the generosity from local churches and food banks that provide them with substance to fill their stomachs. But, with the down economy and the growing demand on these services sometimes even they don’t have food and Graciela is forced to find something, anything, to feed her children—a very different situation from before.

“I am not going to say that we ate great [before], but we ate more healthy foods. [Today], the foods we eat are  hotdogs, sandwiches—whatever is the cheapest. We eat a lot of pasta because you can get two packets of pasta
for $1,” she shares with tears rolling down her cheeks.

Two years later, these dietary changes are started to affect everyone’s health. “My children have gained weight. I have gained weight because of our bad diet. My son, Jason, even has high cholesterol now,” she says. While Graciela is more concerned about the health of her children, she too needs to eat a more nutritious food for her health because she faces the struggles of living with diabetes and high cholesterol as well.

As if the health and economic concerns were not enough for a single mother to carry on her shoulders, Graciela also worries about her children’s safety all of the time. “As a mother, I am very, very worried,” she says, “and on two different occasions people have climbed up on the balcony to rob us.” On neither occasion was anyone hurt, but their possessions were taken, including Ashley and Jason’s bicycles, which would be very useful to get to school and back.

“This is an area that has a high level of gang violence, drugs, graffiti and prostitution,” she says. The graffiti and gang tagging are visible reminders of the violence and problems in this neighborhood. Ashley tries to walk fast on her way to and from school because she doesn’t feel safe on the street.  “Violence is everywhere,” she says. “There are a lot of drive-bys.” She even had a friend of hers killed two years ago, when she was just 12.
 
Nearly everyone in this neighborhood is touched or affected by the gangs and violence on an almost daily basis. If the children have not lost a friend to gang violence, like Ashley has, they have seen it on the street in the form of razzings, or initiation rites. Violence and fear are a part of the daily reality for those who live in this neighborhood. It controls
what time people come in or out of their houses, what they wear (certain colors, clothes, and hairstyles are associated with gang activity), and, in general, how they live their lives.
 
The day that World Vision staff went visited Ashely and her family, a car parked in front of their apartment complex had its tires slashed, a homeless woman was sleeping in the bushes across the street, and there were six gunshots fired, just after dusk, from the next block over. None of these events appeared to faze the mothers we spoke with. They are upset and they worry about their children because they have heard countless other stories of cruelty and criminal acts, but they can’t stop the violence. Not alone. The best protection they have found is to keep their children home as much as possible and to help them be involved in positive activities that can broaden their perspectives for the future.

For Graciela, “the biggest problems in this area are the lack of youth programs.” She says that many children do not receive any positive reinforcement at home and often do not have anything constructive to do after school. This lack of identity and desire to belong causes many adolescents to get involved in gangs or other illicit activities.

Graciela is happy that World Vision has begun working in her community and especially happy that they have started the Youth Empowerment Program for teens, in which Ashley participated in 2009. “I think that it is very good for her because she is doing something with other people and I think that it is making things better for the future,” she says.

The World Vision Youth Empowerment Program encourages teens to analyze the problems and potential solutions to those problems in their communities. Then, they write and take proposals to their representatives in Washington D.C. to talk with their representatives about what changes they believe need to be made.

One of the needs that this group identified in their community was for more afterschool and positive summer vacation, educational activities for the children of neighborhood. To address this need the teens got together and organized a group called the MacArtuhur Park Teen club. Ashley is also a member of the team of volunteers that is providing afternoon educational programs for the children in their neighborhood—all for free.

“The Youth Empowerment Program has changed the way I think about my community. I didn’t have hope. I thought that there was nothing to change in this community. Now, that I did [the Youth Empowerment Program] and I am
helping with the kids, I have hope. Maybe one of the little kids we are teaching will be the next president or the next great leader,” she says with a smile.

  Donate to help children and families overcome by situational poverty.

*Not her real name